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Father Dave welcomes back theologian, Catholic speaker and author, and friend of the show Dr. Edward Sri to discuss his new book \u201cWhat Do You Seek?: Encountering The Heart Of The Gospel.\u201d\xa0

Dr. Sri explains how the book emphasizes the good news of the Gospel and is designed to help us think about the mysteries of God\u2019s love for us so that we can deepen our relationship with Christ.\xa0\xa0

The book breaks down the Gospel into five parts which Dr. Sri calls (The 5 R\u2019s): relationship, rebellion, reconciliation, recreation and response.

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\u201cRelationship is really the fundamental building block of being a Catholic,\u201d Father Dave says.\xa0 \u201cMany Catholics today have this approach to their faith where they think, I know a lot of the facts and I do a lot of the pious practices. \u201cI pray, I read the Bible, I listen to the Busted Halo Show.\xa0 These are all good things,\u201d Dr. Sri responds. \u201cBut sometimes we can look at these things as checking off a bunch of boxes, right? And God doesn't want us to check off boxes, he wants our hearts, he wants us to trust him, he wants a relationship.\u201d He continues, \u201cThink about all that God has created \u2014 the universe, earth, millions of people \u2014 then he chose to create you. God didn\u2019t have to bring you into existence.\xa0 God freely chose to bring you, not just humanity, but you personally into existence. Why? Because he wanted to delight in you and to share his love with you and to share his life with you. And that's the marvelous message of the Gospel.\u201d

Father Dave moves onto the second part of the book, rebellion. \u201cWe have to be realistic about the fact that we, as humans, turn our backs on God's love a lot.\u201d

Dr. Sri points out that we all realize that there is suffering, alienation, and great hardship in the world and that the secular world tends to project these problems outward, whereas Christians turn inward and acknowledge that we are part of the problem. \u201cThis is what the Church calls Original Sin, the idea that that humanity as a whole has sinned, and we each individually have joined in that and that's caused a wound in us. We have to admit, I'm not perfect. I have a lot of weaknesses and sins and that prepares me to experience the good news, the Gospel.\u201d

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Father Dave skips ahead to one of his favorite parts of the book, recreation. \u201cGod doesn\u2019t just reconcile us,\u201d Father Dave says, \u201cGod promises to make all things new.\u201d

Dr. Sri responds: \u201cAs Pope Francis beautifully says, \u2018God doesn't just pardon us like a judge. He heals us like a physician.\u2019 That means Jesus wants to fill his Spirit in our hearts to change us. There's a beautiful analogy the early Christians use. If you take an iron rod and you put it in fire, it becomes red, it becomes hot and it takes on the characteristics of the fire. The early Christians describe that as what happens with our soul. Our soul is like that cold iron rod, but when it's inflamed by the fire of the Holy Spirit, through the sacraments and prayer, then we begin to change, we begin to take on the properties of God Himself. We begin to love like him, to serve like him, to sacrifice, and to trust. We live in his peace. We are more forgiving. We love like Jesus loves, and that's what we want.\u201d